Noël Tordo

Biography

Noel Tordo is a virologist, Docteur es-science, group leader at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He is the head of the Antiviral Strategies Research Unit at the same institute and he is responsible for the OMS Collaboration Center Arbovirus and viruses causing hemorrhagic fever. Very involved in training, Noël Tordo is Director of Fundamental Virology course of the Pasteur Institute and regularly organizes national and international scientific conferences such as Journées Francophones Virology or "European Meeting on Viral Zoonosis". Furthermore he is Vice-President of "the European Society for Virology" and expert in various assessment committees or research organization in France and abroad

Research Interest

The principal objective is to design antiviral strategies against Negative Strand RNA Viruses (NSRV) provoking severe human pathologies such as Rhabdoviridae (rabies virus – RABV; Vesicular Stomatitis Virus - VSV), Bunyaviridae (Puumala virus – PUUV; Crimean Congo Fever virus – CCHFV; Rift Valley Fever – RVFV) or Paramyxoviridae (Respiratory Syncytial Virus – RSV; Measles Virus – MeV; Sendai virus - SeV). We target different steps of their infectious cycle, particularly virus entry and transcription/replication. The transcription/replication complex is typical and similar among NSRV what promises wide-spectrum antiviral drugs without (or with low) cellular toxicity. Such drugs have been for long neglected, because most of the related diseases are “neglected” themselves. This is the case of rabies which however claims > 55,000 lives/year, mostly in developing countries. Its long incubation period (2 months in average) is an advantage for therapy, in complement to vaccination and immunotherapy.